New Year in Prague

Hello lovelies! Hope you are all doing well! I have a lot of overdue posts coming up over the next few weeks but I decided that sharing my Prague post before the rest of them!
As you can tell from the title of the post I spent my new year in Prague, which was just an amazing experience. I went with my friend Zoë and we decided to go for 5 days. We managed to get really good deals and for our flights and accommodation we were around £300. I’m going to write about the holiday day by day throughout this post.

[p.s this is a very long post, you might want to grab a cup of tea first!]

29th

Our first flight was to Amsterdam which was at 6am meaning we had to be at the airport for 4:30am!! We got through security fine and didn’t have a long wait until boarding the flight. As soon as we got on the flight we were told we had to sit and wait a whole HOUR before we could take off. This made us worry about our connecting flight but luckily all was good and we had plenty of time until our next flight.

We arrived at our apartment at around 3pm and got ourselves settled in then decided to go for an explore. We got the tram into town and found a Christmas Market! There was a nativity scene, Christmas tree, huts that sold food, huts that sold hot wine and huts that sold little decorations and jewellery. They even had a pen with a donkey, pony and a sheep in it! It was fair to say it was much better than our one here in Aberdeen!

We continued to explore noticing all the different shops that Prague had to offer and then realised we hadn’t actually eaten all day! We found a TGIs and decided to get something there along with some cocktails!

On our way back to the tram we decided to go into Hamleys and were amazed by all the children’s toys they had on display. There was a slide and a carousel inside too!

30th
After having an early night we both got up around 7:30 and we’re excited to see what the day brought! We didn’t pre plan anything apart from new year on our trip which was nice because we weren’t tied down at all. We decided that we were going to do the Sandeman Tour. The Sandeman Tour is a free walking tour around Prague that takes around 3 hours. On this tour we learnt a lot about the general history of Prague and all the buildings there too. Half way through the tour we stopped at a little restaurant and got hot chocolate.

After the tour we were absolutely freezing! So we ventured to an area we hadn’t been before and came across an Irish bar that had outdoor seating with heaters and blankets. We stopped there and ordered hot wine to warm us up!

For dinner that night we decided that we were in the mood for some sort of Asian Cusine so we found a lovely restuarant that Zoe had looked up called Zebra.  I wish I had taken pictures of the restuarant because it really was beautiful, as you walk in you see the sushi chefs making all sorts of sushi and the main kitchen was slightly open plan too.  I decided to go for the Phad Thai and I still think this was the best meal of the entire holiday!  It makes me genuinly sad that they dont have a Zebra in the UK 🙁

After dinner we were full but decided that we fancied some cocktails!  It was recommended to us to go to The Bed Lounge which is honestly exactly how it sounds.  You go in and lay on a bed and have cocktails – really what more could you want?  It was pretty pricey so we only got a Mojito each before heading back to the apartment.

(Excuse the poor quality!)

31st – NEW YEARS EVE

We got up kind of late on the 31st and decided just to go for an explore around the Old Town Square since we had only discovered it through the walking tour.  We went to a small burger bar restaurant and had an early lunch.  The burgers were so big and filling which really set us up for the day ahead.  Over lunch we decided that we would venture up to the castle and see what there was to do up that way.  The walk up to the castle was so pretty!

The view from the castle wall was even more gorgeous.

And the castle itself was stunning!

Prague castle is actually the biggest castle in the entire world and I know that sounds ridiculous but if you go and see it you will truly understand how huge this castle is.  I have never in my life seen anything quite like it!

After visiting the castle we decided to go and see the John Lennon Wall as it also highly spoken about by tourists.  Again the walk to finding this was so pretty.  It was actually quite a warm day – relatively speaking, I’m sure it was still about 0 degrees! – so wandering around was easy for us this day.

It took us a lot of walking around in circles but we eventually found it and it was definitely quite the something!

After visiting the wall we decided to head back to the apartment to get ready for our night out!  We were well prepared by this point in the holiday and were both wearing two pairs of thermal tights underneath out outfits in attempts to keep ourselves warm.  Definitely not what we are used to for getting ready!

Since it was New Years Eve we thought we would go to a more fancy looking Italian restaurant before going out.  It was a really lovely place that was packed!  We treated ourselves to a glass of Prosecco because why not!?  When our food arrived it looked so luxurious and expensive!  Definitely not what we had expected but it was a really lovely, quality meal.

After our meal we did a bar crawl that we had paid for before going away and I don’t have any pictures from this but it was such a good night!  We all met up in Old Town Square at 8pm and headed to the first bar, Chapeau Rouge, where we could have unlimited drinks for the first hour.  Zoe and I turning up sober was an slight issue as we were nervous but after a few we got into the swing of things!  At the next 3 bars we were given a shot of vodka that had to be done as you walked through the door.  Now, I do NOT handle shots well but I am proud to say I kept every single one of those bad boys down! We also bought a drink at each of these places.  I wish I knew the exact names of the bars however they can change on the night and so the website is not very accurate.  The final place we went to was Karlovy Lazne which is Central Europe’s biggest music club.  We got VIP entry into here as well as a free bottle of champagne each.  This club has 5 floors and each floor plays a different genre of music.  This is where we spent the bells and on the bells we were absolutely drenched in champagne.

We got back to the apartment at about 4am and slept like absolutely babies! We had been out from 6:30 so really can you blame us?

1st

Surprisingly we woke up on the first feeling almost fresh and normal – almost!  We decided to go for a walk and let the fresh air fix our headaches. We were also thinking of all the things we still wanted to do before we left, going to Hard Rock Cafe being one.  We kinda figured that more alcohol would fix us fine so sat at the bar while we waited for our tables.  When we finally got our table we ordered nachos and were astonished when the portion come to our table…

You have to give it to us though, we did amazingly!!  However, we could barely finish our mains after them.  We had a few more cocktails each and honestly we were so so full after.  We continued to walk around the city and ended up going over Charles Bridge.  We had wanted to get some nice pictures while the bridge was quiet however by this point it had gotten so foggy and could see anything from it which was disappointing.  I did however get a nice picture of an archway if that makes things better?

2nd

Our last day 🙁

We really were determined to make the absolute most of our day so we were up and out relatively early and got the tram into town.  We walked past a kaleidoscope cinema and mirror maze place and decided to go in.  We were very unsure of what to expect but it was cheap so why not!  The first place you go is downstairs to the kaleidoscope cinema.  It was so trippy! It was just a video with some music and pictures of Prague – we were very confused!

We then went upstairs to the mirror maze which was your standard maze that you had to try and get through.  I don’t really know how to describe the feeling of going through one of these mazes but once you do it you will understand how hilarious and difficult it is.  We walked into quite a few!

After our laughs we decided to make our way back to the castle but this time actually go in.  We hadn’t gone in the time before because the queue was just ridiculously long however this time it wasn’t so bad.  As we were standing in the queue some sort of parade started to happen, we think there was maybe a wedding but were never told.

By the time we had gotten into the castle it had started to snow! It made everything look even more beautiful than it already was!

We visited various building within the castle grounds but honestly, we weren’t sure what a lot of things were.  I would definitely recommend going as part of a tour group so that you can fully appreciate everything within the walls.

We decided that after the castle and the down pour of snow that we needed something to warm us up so we went back to the Irish Bar.  Instead of hot wine we ordered Bailey Hot Chocolate and it did not come how I was expecting it. It comes as a standard hot chocolate with a shot of Chocolate Baileys! It was soo good though.

On our travels back to the apartment we passed a place called Black Angels Bar and Zoe remembered that her friend had recommended it so we decided to go in – a cocktail wouldn’t hurt right?  We were seated upstairs on the terrace – yes outside – and it took us a moment to realise we were now in the restaurant part of the building called Terasa U Prince.  We had a quick look at the menu which was VERY expensive but there wasn’t really anything that we fancied so cocktails it was!

Since it was our last night we decided that we were going to visit a few of the cocktail bars that had been recommended to us but first we found a little restaurant to have dinner in.  I cannot for the life of me remember what it was called but the food was really nice, the service was poor.

The first cocktail bar we went to was L’FLeur and this quickly became our favourite place of the entire trip!  It was a very calm and quiet atmosphere with jazz covers of pop songs playing in the background.  When you go in you are seated and the barman will come and chat to you about your preferences in a cocktails such as if you would like vodka, gin or champagne based, fruity or fragranced etc.  Once he has the information he needs he will go off and make you something amazing and explains everything that is in it afterwards. I LOVE this idea and we ended up getting 4 each.

We really did not want to leave L’FLeur however we knew we would regret not trying the cocktail bar next door, Tretters. Tretters was more like a bar atmosphere, very busy and loud.  We decided only to have one cocktail here before heading back.

So for the entire time we had been in Prague we kept seeing this pizza shop that sold single slices of pizza but we never made the time to go in and get a slice but tonight was the night!  It was 30 czk for a slice which works out to be just under £1 which I think is amazing!  It was soo tasty and exactly what we were after.

By the time we got back to the apartment it was closer to midnight and we had to get up at 3am to catch our flight. Being in the drunk state that we were we thought that the best idea would be to stay awake rather than get some rest – an idea that we quickly came to regret!

That is all for my mini holiday to Prague! I know it’s a long one I do apologise but I hope that you have enjoyed reading and it has somewhat convinced you that you NEED to go to Prague!  It truly is a beautiful place with a lot of interesting history.

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